Bill Text: NY A00628 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Amended

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Bill Title: Establishes Diwali as a school holiday in public schools in the city of New York.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 42-1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2024-01-12 - reference changed to education [A00628 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A00628-Amended.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                         628--B

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    January 10, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M. of A. RAJKUMAR, RAGA, ROZIC, TAYLOR, TAPIA, LEE, KIM,
          BICHOTTE HERMELYN, SEAWRIGHT, BRAUNSTEIN, GONZALEZ-ROJAS,  CUNNINGHAM,
          BURGOS,  CRUZ, SHRESTHA, LAVINE, PHEFFER AMATO, BORES, AUBRY, ALVAREZ,
          GALLAGHER,  DILAN,  SANTABARBARA,  ANDERSON,  D. ROSENTHAL,   SEPTIMO,
          JOYNER,  HYNDMAN, LUCAS, SAYEGH, WEPRIN, KELLES, GLICK, BEEPHAN, FALL,
          GIBBS, DE LOS SANTOS, REYES, HEVESI,  EPSTEIN,  CARROLL,  SILLITTI  --
          read  once  and  referred  to  the Committee on Education -- committee
          discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted
          to said committee -- again reported from said  committee  with  amend-
          ments, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee

        AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to establishing Diwali as
          a school holiday in certain public schools

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new section 2586-a
     2  to read as follows:
     3    § 2586-a. Diwali as a holiday for students in the  public  schools  of
     4  the city of New York. The fifteenth day of the eighth month of the Indi-
     5  an  calendar  in each year, known as Diwali, is hereby made and declared
     6  to be a holiday for students in all  the  public  schools  in  the  city
     7  school  district  in  the  city  of  New  York and students shall not be
     8  required to attend the public schools on such day. If such day falls  on
     9  a Sunday, students shall not be required to attend public schools on the
    10  Monday thereafter.
    11    §  2. Subdivision 2-a of section 3635 of the education law, as amended
    12  by chapter 424 of the laws of 2005, is amended to read as follows:
    13    2-a. The superintendent of each city school district, in a city having
    14  a population in excess of one million, shall  prepare  a  public  school
    15  calendar and shall notify officials of nonpublic schools to which trans-
    16  portation  has  been  requested  not later than the first day of June in
    17  each year, of the days on which the public schools will be in session in

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD02941-08-3
        A. 628--B                           2

     1  the following school year. Such school district which provides transpor-
     2  tation to nonpublic schools shall provide such  transportation  for  the
     3  same number of days as the public schools are open but shall not provide
     4  transportation  services  for  more than one hundred eighty days.  Offi-
     5  cials of each nonpublic school to which transportation is provided by  a
     6  city  school  district  of  a  city having a population in excess of one
     7  million may notify such district, not later than the first day  of  July
     8  of  each school year, of a maximum of five days, exclusive of Saturdays,
     9  Sundays or legal holidays upon which public schools are required  to  be
    10  closed,  on  which the public schools are scheduled to be closed, except
    11  that in any year in which the first or last day of Passover  and  Easter
    12  Sunday  are separated by more than seven days, such officials may notify
    13  the district of a maximum of ten days, but such school district will  be
    14  required to provide for transportation to such nonpublic school provided
    15  that  such  five  or  ten  additional days, whichever is applicable, are
    16  limited to the following: the Tuesday, Wednesday,  Thursday  and  Friday
    17  after  Labor  Day,  Rosh  Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the week in which public
    18  schools are closed for spring recess,  December  twenty-fourth  and  the
    19  week  between  Christmas day and New Year's day, the Tuesday, Wednesday,
    20  Thursday and Friday after the observance of Washington's  birthday,  the
    21  fifteenth  day  of the eighth month of the Indian calendar in each year,
    22  known as Diwali, and, in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens only, Anni-
    23  versary Day as designated in section twenty-five hundred  eighty-six  of
    24  this chapter.
    25    § 3. This act shall take effect on July 1, 2023.